Peterhof.Sergievsky Park
In Sergievsky Park - a palace and park ensemble located in Peterhof, west of the Leuchtenberg Palace, in a ravine, near the Kristelka River, there is a miracle head, carved into the ground, carved from a huge boulder, called “The Old Man” or “Adam’s Head”.
Official version. The head appeared, according to historical records, in 1800, under the then owner, Sergei Rumyantsev (a descendant of Peter I’s associate, Alexander Rumyantsev). The monument was designed by the architect F. Brower, who worked at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries in St. Petersburg.
It feels like the body of this head (sculpture) is hidden somewhere underground. It is possible that it is already in a damaged, broken state, but it is still there.
It is difficult to explain the juxtaposition of traces of stone erosion and the simultaneous clear lines of the master's stone work. Or there was something else on the head (a knight’s helmet, for example). The hole in the nasal septum indicates this option. Or maybe someone checked to see if it was hollow?
Amateurs are not allowed to dig here. This can only be done by “accredited” institutions, archaeologists. But as you can see, they are in no hurry to get here.
Perhaps the knight's large metal helmet was attached to a hole on the bridge of his nose.
We all see the hole.
But here grand slam no one saw it, or at least there is no mention of it.
In July 1818, young Alexander Pushkin and his friend N. Raevsky Jr. visited a shady ravine near a “sleeping” head.
In the poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila,” completed two years later, a plot appears, perhaps inspired by impressions of what he saw in Sergievka.
True, according to some oral versions, it turns out that this is the head of some Swedish king, which the Swedes dragged to the sea on a ship, but did not drag it and threw it away.
There is also a legend that says that the head was carved by an employee of the Peterhof lapidary factory in memory of Peter I, godfather of the daughter (some say son) of this master.
The head is also called “Old Man” or “Adam’s Head”, or “Rusich” and a very rare name is the sculpture of Svyatogor, also called “Samson’s Head”.
Such a rare variety of names in itself suggests that many legends are woven into the history of these places.
I will always have a special relationship with Peterhof, its ensembles of palaces and parks due to pleasant childhood memories of regular trips there. I like to return to this place, examine painfully familiar estates and estates, walk along barely trodden paths between centuries-old oak trees and look for something new over and over again. One of these hidden, unobvious corners is my favorite park “Sergievka”.
Sergievsky Park, or the park of the Leuchtenberg estate, is a non-tourist Peterhof, best known for its palace with many fountains. If you look at it, “Sergievka” is located in Old Peterhof, that is, further from St. Petersburg than Petrodvorets. AND main feature Old Peterhof is a mass of gardens, which the whole world seems to have forgotten, leaving the most beautiful buildings with amazing design to the mercy of time and nature. But perhaps it is this authenticity that makes Sergievka a special space.
A little history
Initially, there was no park as such. There was an ordinary forest in which A. I. Rumyantsev, a politician and figure from the times of the Great, bought the land. If he built some kind of estate for himself here (and, most likely, he did), then now there is no trace of it left. The park was named “Sergievka” after the grandson of the first owner of this land, Sergei Rumyantsev. Later, the estate was sold to Kirill Naryshkin, a figure at the emperor’s court, but shortly after his death the territory was bought by Tsar Nicholas I for his daughter and her husband, the Duke of Leuchtenberg. By order of this married couple architect Andrey Stackenschneider designed and built on the territory of “Sergievka” country palace, buildings for servants, a church and gardens.
After the revolution, in the 20s of the last century, “Sergievka” was given the status of a natural monument, and the estate with all the adjacent buildings was transferred to the disposal of Leningrad University. The park is still their property, as evidenced by the sign at the turn to the palace.
“Sergievka” was very badly damaged during the war, and almost all the buildings on the territory have not been fully restored. You will notice this instantly as soon as you enter the park.
How to get there from St. Petersburg
You can get to this wonderful place by train or bus from the southwest of St. Petersburg or by your own car.
By bus
The most affordable and comfortable trip is offered by bus No. 200. For 60 rubles, it will take you from the Avtovo metro station directly to Sergievka in 60–80 minutes, depending on the presence of traffic jams when leaving the city.
There are also other buses that travel from the city towards Sergievka, but none of them stop near metro stations, and in some cases you will also have to change trains. At Avtovo you will find buses and minibuses on the opposite side from the station exit, where you can reach via a pedestrian underground passage.
By minibus
In addition to public ones, there are also commercial buses - minibuses. You can also get from Avtovo by minibuses with the following numbers: 401, 401A, K300. You will have to pay about 80–85 rubles. From the Prospekt Veteranov metro station, minibus No. K343 runs to Sergievka in less time. You will pay 70 rubles for the journey.
In any case, your final point will be the Biological Institute stop, which is located right next to Sergievka. All of these buses and minibuses go through Strelna, Petrodvorets and Old Peterhof, so if any of these places are your starting point, you can hop on the transport from any stop on the Peterhof Highway.
By train
My favorite thing to do is travel to Peterhof by train: there is always somewhere to sit, there are train stations near almost every attraction, it is relatively inexpensive and does not require transfers. “Sergievka” is located next to the University station (in the same place where some faculties of St. Petersburg State University and its dormitory are located) 50 minutes by train from the city.
To get on this train, you will need to arrive at the Baltiysky station (Baltiyskaya metro station), or you can take the train at the Leninsky Prospekt metro station, but there you will have to walk a little longer to railway station. Travel by train will cost you 72 rubles, and you can see the actual schedule at the link. Train tickets can only be purchased at the station ticket office.
The park is located almost immediately behind the station, but it will take you about 30 minutes if you take a leisurely stroll to reach the main attractions. You can enter the park from the station, despite the fact that the entrance to the park is not indicated on the map.
By car
When planning a trip to Sergievka, so as not to spend too much time on the road, you should remember some nuances. Closer to 16 o'clock, a lot of cars rush out of the city towards Oranienbaum and, accordingly, our park: people are driving home from work from the city. From about 4 pm to 7 pm on weekdays, some of the main southwestern avenues of St. Petersburg (Stachek and Petergofsky) simply stand still. Namely, you will have to travel along them for a certain part of the journey. If suddenly (!) you stay in Peterhof for the night, then remember that in weekdays morning (and Sunday evening at summer time) these same sections of the road are busy in the direction of St. Petersburg.
Getting out of the city center, you will spend no more than an hour on the road, of course, if you do not forget about the advice that I gave you above. An alternative option is to drive about a quarter of the way along the WHSD (Western Expressway Diameter), that is, on a toll road. It will cost you about 200 rubles. But this way you won’t be able to see from the window Petrodvorets, nor the Cathedral and St. Paul, nor the charming Peterhof houses... In general, you be the judge, but if something happens, you can always leave the WHSD in Strelna and thus capture all the beauties of the region.
Parking
You won’t have any problems with this point even on weekends: there’s plenty of space nearby to leave your car, and you won’t have to pay anything. Firstly, right across the road from the turn to Sergievka there is a small field where you can park. Secondly, there is an option to stop right on the path that turns into the park (the road stretches for about 150 meters right up to the barrier).
Main attractions of the park
Despite the fact that the park is very small (especially when compared with the most famous one), there is something to see in it, even if almost all the buildings are in rather poor condition.
Do not forget that the main asset of the park is nature, and while walking here, you can spend several hours enjoying the surrounding beauty.
Leuchtenberg Manor
This is the first building that greets you when entering the park. It is clearly visible from bus stop, which it faces main facade palace Thus, we can imagine that from its windows the noble people had a magnificent view of the Gulf of Finland.
The estate has different buildings, also inaccessible for inspection from the inside: a kitchen, a bedroom (for servants) and others, scattered here and there throughout the park. But, of course, they don’t look nearly as interesting and attractive as the palace. Unfortunately, only two facades have been restored: the main one and the one visible at the entrance to the park. But, as I already said, this condition of the walls, peeling paint and dilapidated columns give the whole ensemble a unique charm.
Head
Even though this park was originally built around the estate and was named after it for a long time, the main attraction is not the estate and not the walks along the narrow forest paths. The calling card of “Sergievka” is a huge stone head that looks out from under the ground at visitors passing by. There are many legends around it, but no one knows for sure how and why it was carved here.
According to the main version, it was built in the image of the Great One in gratitude for the blessing of the sculptor’s family. I prefer the story that was told to me in childhood: they say, it was about this head that he wrote in “Ruslan and Lyudmila.”
Now most of the head is buried underground, but some historians and researchers believe that the sculpture was not completed because the face was not completed. Be that as it may, this head is one of the main mysteries of Peterhof. In order to find this Adam's Head (you can also call it the Elder or Rusich), you need to go around the palace, go down the stairs behind it and cross the stream. There you will see her.
Beach on Lake Zelenka
I can only guess why this lake is named that way. However, the guesses are quite obvious - they will immediately come to your mind as soon as you see this place in person. Firstly, the water here is green due to the shallow depth and the plants that can be seen at the bottom. Secondly, the lake is surrounded by trees, the branches of which in the summer are strewn with emerald foliage, reflected on the surface of the water.
Swimming here is a dubious pleasure, especially for squeamish girls, but in the summer, some especially desperate tourists can enjoy splashing in this reservoir. Honestly speaking, I can tell by own experience: You can definitely swim here, which cannot be said about the Gulf of Finland, a 7-minute walk from the park. Unfortunately, in this area it looks more like a huge puddle than part of the sea.
Ruins of a church
If, after entering the park, you go straight for about 250 meters past the service buildings, you will come across the ruins of the four walls of an ancient church, which was simply left in such a pitiful state after the war. At first, historians assumed that it was a Catholic church, but since the region was still far from Western Christianity, this version was shallow. Soon they found confirmation that the church was Orthodox: on one of the slabs, which I, to be honest, could not find myself (maybe it had been removed a long time ago), words were written in Church Slavonic.
What makes these ruins special is that you can climb into them and take photos in the doorway, the carvings along the edges of which remain intact.
Own dacha
Formally, the palace and the surrounding area are not part of Sergievka, but due to their close location, visits to the two ensembles are usually combined. The main attraction of the Own Dacha is the palace, the construction of which was completed by the beginning of the reign of Princess Elizabeth Petrovna. Later, after a hundred years of neglect, it was presented to Tsarevich Alexander Nikolaevich by his father. During the Soviet era there was a museum here. Now, unfortunately, you can’t get close to the estate due to recently begun restoration work (which the building has been in need of for several decades), but even from behind the fence it is clear that this place is one of the architectural masterpieces of St. Petersburg and its environs. Mighty Atlanteans support the carved façade, and the attic on the third floor rests on tall columns.
There is also a sad story behind the rapid decline of the park - this area was subject to severe shelling during the Great Patriotic War. Patriotic War. And if the Lower Park of Peterhof was soon built up, then, as you see, to cultural heritage The restorers of Old Peterhof have only recently arrived.
In addition to the palace, in the park of the Tsarevich's dacha, exquisite gardens were planted, beautiful winding paths were laid out and surrounded by boulders, there was also a small Church of the Holy Trinity especially for the Tsar's son, which was also in a pitiful state for a long time. Now the restoration of the church is almost complete, services are held there and holidays are held.
Near “Sergievka” there are many interesting places that the average tourist does not know about and where excursion buses will not take him. Also in the surrounding area there are no less attractions, about which everyone is writing. I want to tell you about two locations: one, almost unknown in the world of travelers, and the second, a very popular palace ensemble.
Dacha Benois (1.5 kilometers from Sergievka)
This is a whole complex of buildings made in the style of Russian architecture with elements of northern Art Nouveau (Art Nouveau). And, sadly, it is now in disrepair (worse than in Sergievka). From the papers and signs near the houses one can understand that they belong to the ensemble of the Own Dacha, but are located at a great distance from it. The remains of the village of Bobylskaya, declared a cultural heritage of Peterhof, are now just standing and being destroyed before our eyes. There were many more houses in this area, but some of them collapsed due to fires, and some were destroyed during the war. These estates were named so because they were designed by the architect Leonty Benois for various influential families of his century.
The dachas are located right on the coast of the Gulf of Finland, the easiest way to find them is at the address: Primorskaya street, building 8, building 2. If you get to Sergievka, you won’t have any trouble walking here: believe me, these buildings only complement the sad and mystical atmosphere Old Peterhof.
If you wander around, you can find the ruins of some other buildings. You can climb into one of the buildings through a broken doorway, but be very careful: half of the house has already collapsed, so everything is at your own risk. Of course, there are many similar places all over Russia, but who knows how long these particular houses will remain standing? Currently, active work is underway to plan the reconstruction of the dachas and the gardens surrounding them...
Oranienbaum (7 kilometers from Sergievka)
Oranienbaum is a real royal residence on the territory of the Lomonosov village, and the scale here is visible in everything. Peter III once lived here, even before he became ruler Russian Empire. After Catherine II ascended the throne, Oranienbaum was declared a district estate royal family.
I call this place an “estate” with difficulty, since it is a real ensemble of parks (Upper and Lower, as it was customary to divide them in those days) with many sculptures, palaces, and buildings in the Rococo style. This is the Great Menshikov Palace, the Chinese Palace (the most interesting place throughout the park, in my opinion), there are many pavilions, buildings for servants, cavalrymen and many, many different other buildings, which either the guides or nearby signs with a detailed description will be able to tell you about. Oranienbaum, in its amazing luxury, somehow reminds me of the palaces of Vienna, and it just makes my head spin when I see these incredible estates, neatly trimmed and perfectly designed gardens.
Surprisingly, the palace complex practically did not need restoration after the war, since a special line of defense of Leningrad was located on its territory.
In conclusion
"Sergievka", like all places in Old Peterhof, will not impress you with maddening beauty, like Petrodvorets, often compared to Versailles. The main attraction here, in my opinion, is, first of all, nature. On the one hand, unremarkable birch and oak groves, hills, barely noticeable streams. On the other hand, this is what is so lacking in the Northern Capital, when you spend hours studying stone sculptures in the center or live in a Khrushchev-era building on the outskirts. Come here to escape from routine, think about the eternal and fleeting, or just to take a walk and breathe fresh air.
This park surprises with how harmoniously it combines the creations of nature with works of art. human hands, which are slowly but surely absorbed by time. Old Peterhof is an unjustifiably forgotten place, but perhaps it is precisely this lostness between the present and the past that makes it so special.
If they don’t dig up this head and try not to shine a light on it, then they know what it is. Same thing withOriginal taken from sibved to Peterhof. Sergievsky Park. Stone head
In Sergievsky Park - a palace and park ensemble located in Peterhof, west of the Leuchtenberg Palace, in a ravine, near the Kristelka River, there is a miracle head, carved into the ground, carved from a huge boulder, called “The Old Man” or “Adam’s Head”.
Official version. The head appeared, according to historical records, in 1800, under the then owner - Sergei Rumyantsev (a descendant of Peter I's associate - Alexander Rumyantsev). The monument was designed by the architect F. Brower, who worked at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries in St. Petersburg.
It feels like the body of this head (sculpture) is hidden somewhere underground. It is possible that it is already in a damaged, broken state, but it is still there.
It is difficult to explain the juxtaposition of traces of stone erosion and the simultaneous clear lines of the master's stone work. Or there was something else on the head (a knight’s helmet, for example). The hole in the nasal septum indicates this option. Or maybe someone checked to see if it was hollow?
Amateurs are not allowed to dig. This can only be done by “accredited” institutions, archaeologists. But as you can see, they are in no hurry to get here.
Sergievka also has a second unofficial name - the estate of the Duke of Leuchtenberg
Close-up photo. Traces of stone erosion are visible.
The hole is shallow. Tourists leave coins as usual.
On the territory of the park, in addition to the palace itself and " stone head"there are also other objects made of stone
Boulders, including some with flat edges. Destroyed ancient masonry?
The place is very interesting. It’s a pity that it’s not as widely visited as the sights of St. Petersburg itself, and the cultural monuments themselves (the estate) are not in the best condition.
Moreover, not all residents of Russia, but also St. Petersburg, know about this place. I previously posted similar information on the forum.
Sergievka Park is located in the vicinity of St. Petersburg, on the border between the village of Martyshkino and Old Peterhof. The park is known as the former Leuchtenberg estate and is considered a unique cultural and XIX history century.
If you go down one of the park paths along the stream flowing into the ravine, you will see an incredible sight - a huge stone head half-grown into the ground.
This is one of the most mysterious sculptures in the vicinity of St. Petersburg. Where it came from and who placed it there is a mystery. They call her “Old Man”, “Head of Adam”, “Rusich”.
The exact date of creation of the stone head and its author are unknown. Until now, its origin causes a lot of controversy among historians. It is interesting that this monument is not mentioned in any of the historical documents; there are no pre-revolutionary photographs or drawings of this head.
One of the rare mentions of the monument in the 19th century is a fragment in Lewis Carroll’s “Diary of a Travel to Russia in 1867”: “Here we admired the smooth veil of a waterfall cascading down wide stone steps; here - a long alley running under an arch of climbing plants down stairs and slopes; there - with a huge stone, hewn in the shape giant head with a face and eyes as mysterious as those of a meek sphinx, so that it seemed as if some Titan was trying to free himself from the burden of the earth that had fallen on his shoulders..."
Probably, the sculpture is a design of a water source that flows into a stream here.
The official version says that the head was carved from a boulder in 1800 by order of Emperor Paul I and according to the design of the architect F. Brouwer. She depicted a Russian knight, and a bronze helmet was attached to her, from which the mounting hole on the bridge of the head is still preserved. According to legend, it was after seeing this head during a visit to Sergievka in 1818 that Pushkin created his immortal image headless giant.
There is a point of view that this is the head of Peter I, allegedly made by a master from the Peterhof Cutting Factory as a token of gratitude for the fact that the king agreed to become godfather his daughter.
There are other legends that explain the appearance of this monument. According to one of them, the head was sculpted by the Swedes. It was the image of one of the Scandinavian kings. The Swedes dragged their heads to the sea, but did not finish their journey and threw the stone where it lies to this day.
All these versions are not documented and are rather of folk origin.
Elena Krumbo, especially for the “World of Secrets” website
Other related articles:
About three thousand years ago, an Indian culture arose on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, called Olmec. This conventional name was given by the name of the Olmecs - small group Indian tribes who lived in this territory much later, in the 11th-14th centuries. The very name "Olmec", which means "rubber people", is of Aztec origin.
The Aztecs named them after the area on the Gulf Coast where rubber was produced and where the contemporary Olmecs lived. So the Olmecs themselves and the Olmec culture are not at all the same thing. This circumstance is extremely difficult to understand for non-specialists like G. Hancock, who devoted many pages to the Olmecs in his book “Traces of the Gods.” Such publications only confuse the problem, while at the same time explaining nothing of the essence of the matter.
The ancient Olmec civilization, which dates back to the second millennium BC. e., ceased to exist in the first years of our era and one and a half thousand years before the heyday of the Aztec empire. The Olmec culture is sometimes called the "mother of cultures" of Central America and the earliest civilization of Mexico.
Oddly enough, despite all the efforts of archaeologists, nowhere in Mexico, as well as in America in general, have so far been able to discover any traces of the origin and evolution of the Olmec civilization, the stages of its development, the place of its origin, as if this people appeared as already laid down.
Absolutely nothing is known about the social organization of the Olmecs, nor about their beliefs and rituals - except for human sacrifice. We do not know what language the Olmecs spoke, to what ethnic group they belonged. And the extremely high humidity in the Gulf of Mexico area meant that not a single Olmec skeleton survived.
The culture of the ancient Olmecs was the same “corn civilization” as the rest of the pre-Columbian cultures of America. The main sectors of the economy were agriculture and fishing. The remains of religious buildings of this civilization - pyramids, platforms, statues - have survived to this day. The ancient Olmecs cut down stone blocks and carved massive sculptures from them. Some of them depict huge heads, known today as "Olmec heads." These stone heads are the biggest mystery of ancient civilization...
Monumental sculptures weighing up to 30 tons depict the heads of people with unmistakably Negroid facial features. These are almost portrait images of Africans in tight-fitting helmets with a chin strap. The earlobes are pierced. The face is carved with deep wrinkles on both sides of the nose. The corners of the thick lips are curved down.
Despite the fact that the Olmec culture flourished in 1500-1000 BC. e., there is no certainty that the heads were carved precisely in this era, since radiocarbon dating of pieces of coal found nearby gives only the age of the coals themselves. Perhaps the stone heads are much younger.
The first stone head was discovered in the 1930s by American archaeologist Matthew Stirling. He wrote in his report: “The head was carved from a separate massive basalt block.
It rested on a foundation of rough stone blocks. Having been cleared of the ground, the head had a rather terrifying appearance. Despite its considerable size, it is crafted very carefully and confidently, its proportions are ideal. A unique phenomenon among the sculptures of the American aborigines, it is notable for its realism. Her features are distinct and clearly of the Negro type."
By the way, Stirling made another discovery - he discovered children's toys in the form of dogs on wheels. This seemingly innocent find was actually a sensation - after all, it was believed that the civilizations of pre-Columbian America did not know wheels. But it turns out that this rule does not apply to the ancient Olmecs...
However, it soon turned out that the Mayan Indians, the southern contemporaries of the ancient Olmecs, also made toys on wheels, but did not use the wheel in their economic practice.
There is no big mystery here - the roots of this ignorance of the wheel go back to the mentality of the Indians and the “corn economy”. In this regard, the ancient Olmecs differed little from other Indian civilizations.
In addition to heads, the ancient Olmecs left numerous examples of monumental sculpture. All of them are carved from basalt monoliths or other durable stone. On Olmec stelae one can see scenes of the meeting of two clearly different human races. One of them is Africans. And in one of the Indian pyramids located near the Mexican city of Oaxaca, there are several stone steles with scenes carved on them of the captivity of bearded white people and... Africans by the Indians.
Olmec heads and images on steles represent physiologically exact images real representatives of the Negroid race, whose presence in Central America 3000 years ago is still a mystery. Where might Africans have come from in the New World before Columbus? Perhaps they were indigenous to America? There is evidence from paleoanthropologists that as part of one of the migrations to the territory of the American continent during the last ice age indeed people of the Negroid race were included. This migration took place around 1500 BC. e.
There is another assumption - that in ancient times contacts between Africa and America were carried out across the ocean, which, as it turned out in last decades, did not at all divide ancient civilizations. The assertion that the New World was isolated from the rest of the world, which had long dominated science, was convincingly refuted by Thor Heyerdahl and Tim Severin, who proved that contacts between the Old and New Worlds could have taken place long before Columbus.
The Olmec civilization ceased to exist in last century B.C. But their culture did not perish - it organically entered the cultures of the Aztecs and Mayans.
What about the Olmecs? In fact, the only one" business card"that they left behind are giant stone heads. African heads...